While the star has stopped performing in concert for health reasons, a show recorded in Quebec brings together a group of singers who perform the hits from the album “d’Eux”, released thirty years ago.
The recording took place on September 3. At nightfall, near the port of Quebec, the show in tribute to Celine Dion gets off to a flying start. Beams sweep across the starry sky. A camera flies over the 7,000 spectators who are waving their luminous bracelets. Some came from the United States, Australia, Canada. A group of fans hold up a giant sign with lots of hearts: “I will turn myself into gold so that you love me again. » « Tickets sold out in less than 24 hours», Proudly tells us co-producer Jean-Philippe Lemonnier.
The musicians who accompany the singer in Las Vegas and on tour are happy. Since the star canceled all his concerts for health reasons, this is the first time they have been together on stage. Celine Dion is absent. “ She stayed in Las Vegas with her children. She takes care of them every day and works to find the secret to her health problems», confides his brother Jacques Dion to Figaro .
Read alsoJacques Dion on his sister, singer Céline Dion: “She is very lucid and refuses to complain”
At the piano, musical director Scott Price launches the first rock notes of I’ll go wherever you will go. “Tonight, we celebrate thirty years of the legendary album Two signed Jean-Jacques Goldman, the best-selling French-language record of all time. Scott Price specially redid all the arrangements”, underlines Jean-Philippe Lemonnier. On the drums, Dominique Messier goes wild while Roch Voisine and Chimène Badi grab the microphones. Véronic DiCaire, Corneille, Patrick Fiori, Élodie Frégé join them. Let’s go for two hours of 100% live show. If it were enough to love, Fly, Into another world… The hits parade, illustrated by archive images of Céline Dion, her husband and producer René Angelil (1942-2016) and Jean-Jacques Goldman.
Read alsoJean-Jacques Goldman, an omnipresent absentee
A week of rehearsal
Although this show is the final bouquet of the SuperFrancoFête which celebrates the Francophonie, the choice of songs goes beyond those of the album Two. The artists sing Anglo-Saxon hits like All by Myself Andmy heart Will Go On . A rare occurrence in show business, the singers devoted an entire week to rehearsing this show. The rehearsals in front of Scott Price made more than one person tremble. However, the benefits are unequal. Girls, from Anne Sila to Véronic DiCaire, Isabelle Boulay through Élodie Frégé, do really well while some boys give the impression of singing from their bathroom.
In the audience, the camera multiplies close-ups on the Dion clan, 50 of the 120 members of which made the two-hour drive from Montreal. We recognize seven of the singer’s brothers and sisters: Jacques, Paul, Clément, Claudette, Louise, Ghislaine and Pauline, the one who looks so much like Céline. Their emotion is visible: they hug each other and have tears in their eyes. Their presence legitimizes this show from which the two main stakeholders, Céline and Jean-Jacques Goldman, are absent. “Jean-Jacques hasn’t shown up for a long time. When this show was decided at the beginning of the summer, we did not contact him so as not to bother him and to save time», says Jean-Philippe Lemonnier who took care of the casting of the French artists.
Until the last moment, production hoped that Céline Dion’s state of health would allow it to record a message broadcast on air. The last time the star was able to give her news herself dates back to December 2022. Will she come forward? Two hours before the recording of this show, Céline Dion sent a message to her brother Jacques to ask him“to kiss everyone“.